Chasing Destiny (Silver Tip Pack Book 2) Page 11

  The Noweres didn’t come closer—their nostrils flexing as they scented the air. Bay’s scent had drawn them in, but if this worked, then the trail would be dead. Cold. To them, I was the same as a tree, a rock, any inanimate object.

  Eventually their chattering slowed, and I sensed when Bay’s fear shifted to curiosity. He wasn’t trembling, and one finger lifted to gently poke at my chest. I huffed out a short breath and relaxed into him. When the Noweres no longer had a scent to hunt, they stood swaying without a purpose before a sound somewhere in the distance drew their attention. They turned their rotten bodies around and swayed back toward where they came from.

  We didn’t move for a long time, and I knew I was crushing Bay—he’d made a small grunt when I’d first landed on top of him—but aches and pains were better than being Nowere food.

  When I could no longer hear the Noweres, and I deemed us safe, I slowly rolled to the side, taking Bay with me. I didn’t shift, and instead gathered him in my Were arms and cradled him to my chest. Shifting meant I had to talk, answer questions. Shifting meant my explanation might not be enough, might drive him away. So for now, I enjoyed holding him against me.

  His hands flexed on my biceps, and his face remained pressed to my chest. He didn’t speak for a long time, and I wasn’t sure what that meant—was he angry? Hurt? Bay was quick, so his mind was working overtime trying to figure out what just happened. Finally, he lifted his head and extended a hand to touch the tip of my ear. There was a hole there, one which I covered in human form with my hair, but in Were form, it was obvious. They’d put it there, a way of marking us as their property.

  Bay’s hand smoothed down my jaw and snout, out to the tip of my nose. I watched him, unable to speak, but his heartbeat slamming into his ribs was a drumbeat against my own. “Why aren’t you shifting back?” he asked.

  I wasn’t shifting because that meant I would have to talk. I would have to tell him why I wasn’t admitting where I’d been and why. Tell him about my immunity, and maybe, if he dug deep enough, I’d have to tell him the truth about what happened the day I was taken.

  His jaw clenched, and his eyes blazed with the familiar rush of Bay’s temper. It always simmered below the surface and while it took a long time to anger him, once he was angry, he was really angry.

  “Shift, you motherfucker.” He punched me hard, with a closed fist, right on my shoulder, and his eyes began to fill. I didn’t move, not when he raised his other fist, not when he began to slam both hands down on my chest. In his human form, he couldn’t inflict that much pain, so I let him get it out, even as the tears fell down his face. “You lied to me, and you were going to leave me! Why? And what the fuck just happened!” His last sentence ended on a shout, and the sound made me flinch, as I worried about the Noweres returning.

  I shifted to human form quickly, and Bay barely noticed as he continued to flail his fists. I rolled on top of him, pinning his wrists over his head with one hand and clapping my other hand over his mouth. “Shhh, you’re going to draw the Noweres back.”

  He fell silent, eyes glaring daggers at me.

  “I’m going to take my hand away, but please, Bay, don’t yell.”

  I waited for his nod, and then drew my hand away slowly. Bay lay with his lips pressed shut, but began to buck his hips, trying to dislodge me.

  I didn’t want to get up. I wanted to stay here with Bay’s body pressed against mine, his scent flooding my nostrils now that he was no longer covered by my massive Were body. I’d known this would happen, the fury over my lies, and I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to tell him everything, including why I’d planned to leave again this morning.

  Why had I thought I could leave him? I couldn’t even stop touching him. “Bay, please.” I rubbed my nose beneath his ear, and I couldn’t resist taking a taste of his skin with my tongue. “Stop fighting me.”

  His body slowly relaxed beneath me, the fight leaving his muscles, the angry shaking easing.

  I was supposed to be explaining everything, confessing my soul, but I couldn’t stop tasting him, his concentrated scent along his neck. I nibbled his vein, and this time, when his hips bucked up, his hard ridge brushed mine, and he groaned.

  I still held his hands over his head, but that didn’t prevent Bay from oozing desire out of every pore. His hips rolled, and he stretched his neck to give me more room to work. His knees rose on either side of my hips, and he clamped them around me.

  I wanted him. These last days spent with him, in him, him in me, had only fueled my desire for him, my utter need. I would never get enough of Bay, and I was so fucking stupid to think I could walk away. Even if it would have been for him. I wouldn’t have gotten far, no way, before my mind, body, and heart would have forced me to go right back.

  I wrapped my free hand around his neck, squeezing slightly over his windpipe. He gasped, arching into me again so that my cock brushed along his crack, slick with his arousal.

  I bit down on his shoulder hard, and he moaned long and low. “Fuck me, Nash,” he said. “Then explain to me how you were going to leave this. How you were going to leave me.”

  “Damn it, Bay.” His scent was intoxicating, and I couldn’t wait anymore. With a grunt, I slammed into him, never letting go of my grip on his wrists and throat.

  He cried out, his head thrashing as he lifted his hips to meet my thrusts. There was nothing like being inside of Bay. Mating with him was mind altering and maybe that was why I’d developed a bout of courage to leave this morning, why I thought I could tackle my past head-on.

  But there was no leaving Bay. Not now when I knew how he much he liked my hands on him, my dick in his ass. Not now when I knew how he saw right through me, that he’d fight for me as much as I’d fight for him.

  I slammed into him again and again, moving us inches along the ground as Bay urged me on. “Yeah, like that, oh fuck, Nash.”

  He was beautiful, green eyes bright and wet, mouth gaping. I lowered my face to his, sucking his lower lip into my mouth and worrying it between my teeth. His cries grew high-pitched as I hit his prostate again and again.

  When his eyes widened, and my name slipped from his lips, I smelled and felt his release coat our stomachs.

  I slammed into him one last time and came inside of him, over and over, filling him up until my come leaked out of his hole and soaked the ground below us.

  I let go of Bay’s wrists and gathered him in my arms. He was limp but breathing, and I lapped at all the bites I’d made on his body—his shoulders, his lips, his ears. He sighed as I moved on down to his nipples, swirling my tongue around the stiff peaks and then nosing up into his armpits. His scent there was enough for my dick to refill again.

  I lapped at his release on his abs, then rolling him onto his stomach so I could clean his hole with my tongue. His rim was slightly red, and he made soft whuffing sounds as I lapped at him. The air reeked of us, our come, and I knew we had to get out of here, before the Noweres scented him and came back. I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to hide his scent now.

  He lay with his head pillowed on his arms, eyes closed. Tears leaked out the corners, tears I knew I’d caused, and I lay over his back to lick his face clean. He didn’t look at me, and when I pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, his muscles tightened.

  “Bay…” I began, but didn’t finish my sentence, because the sound of something crashing through the brush behind us cut me off.

  I didn’t think, only reacted. Bay was mine to protect, so I shifted into my Were form and faced whatever was to come, whatever threatened my mate. My Bay.

  Except it wasn’t Noweres that emerged from the foliage. Dare raced into view, his claws out, half-shifted with Vaughn, Pace, and G at his back. When he saw me, he skidded to a halt, chest heaving. His eyes were wild, terrified, and I knew he was looking for Bay. Who stepped from behind me to face his brother with a raspy, “Hey, brother.”

  Dare closed his eyes for a brief moment, relief slumping his shoulders and pull
ing at the corners of his mouth. I shifted back to human as Dare surged forward, drawing his brother into his arms. The two embraced, and my heart ached, because there was a sibling missing. There always would be. And it was my fault.

  Dare let go of his brother to clasp my face. “When Vaughn told me you were alive, I didn’t believe it, but here you are.” He shook his head. “How?”

  I was trapped. My chest tightened, and my breath left my lips in short pants. Bay was eyeing me like I was a stranger, like I hadn’t just fucked him, like my come wasn’t still drying on his skin.

  And he wasn’t wrong. I was strange. And I would bring a war right to their doorstep. My very presence here right now was dangerous. Why hadn’t I left sooner? Oh right, because I was selfish. And I wanted more time with Bay.

  I swallowed, but words failed me.

  “He’s invisible to them,” Bay said in a low voice. I knew he’d figured it out. “Noweres can’t smell him. Right, Nash?”

  There it was. He didn’t even know the whole truth. Not only was I invisible to them in my Were form, I was also immune, and the day I’d found that out was a day I’d never forget—Nowere teething slashing in my leg as I screamed, convinced that was it, that I’d die and come back as one of them. Except I hadn’t. All I had to show for that bite was a scar on my leg.

  So yeah, Bay was right, but this knowledge would get him killed along with the whole Silver Tip pack.

  I was told I could never go home. They were probably watching this little reunion right now, and if I stepped inside the compound’s walls, we were all fucked. Maybe I could still plead my case…

  I took one last look at Bay, at the love of my life, imprinting his image and scent on my memory. Then I shifted to my wolf form, dropping onto all fours with a howl and taking off into the brush behind me. I didn’t look back, didn’t slow down, even as a horde of paws pounded after me.

  I was big and fast, but I wasn’t as big as Dare. I had hoped he wouldn’t chase me, that they’d let me go, but I should have known better. In minutes, Dare was at my flank, green eyes glowing, nipping at me in an effort to slow me down. I was mindless now, the scent of Bay still on me, breaking my heart as I sought to get away, to save my home pack, the place I’d fought all these years to preserve.

  But the alpha was having none of it. With a frustrated huff, he swung his giant head into my side, knocking me off my paws. I hit the ground hard on my side, and a piercing pain shot into my ribs. I welcomed it, because it took my mind off my broken heart. Maybe if I fought hard enough, Dare would kill me.

  I shifted to human form, prepared to fight, but Dare was on me in an instant—human too—and grabbed me from behind. He wrapped his arm around my neck and issued a harsh command in my ear. “Be still.”

  I thrashed my legs. No, I wouldn’t be still. Being still meant harm would come to my pack. I couldn’t go within those walls. They’d know, they’d know, they’d know…

  With a curse, the arm around my neck tightened. Bay’s face swam into my vision, calling my name, shouting at Dare. There was a scuffle, and my body was jostled, but that arm didn’t let up.

  Blackness overtook me, and I hoped for one last blessed moment that Dare had killed me.

  Chapter Twelve

  I woke up with a gasp, pain ripping through my sore throat, and my aching neck. I opened my eyes and stared at a ceiling. Walls. A room.

  I was on a bed in a Silver Tip apartment. I recognized the window right away, the walls, and even the bed I lay on felt familiar, even after twenty years. I closed my eyes again and wanted to cry. It was done. I was inside these walls, and the scouts would know. I had no doubt they’d been watching this compound since I was forced out and would run back to report I’d broken the rules.

  Why hadn’t they just killed me?

  It was their last fuck you. Forcing me to stay alive, but not letting me return to my pack. They knew I’d be in pain for the rest of my life. They didn’t care, because I was nothing but an experiment to them.

  A form was slumped in the corner on a chair. Bay. He wore nothing but a pair of leather pants, and his chest rose and fell with sleep-heavy breaths. I frowned at the darkening bruise on his jaw.

  I rose up on my elbows, and the bedding rustled. Bay’s eyes popped open immediately, and his head turned to me. “Nash!” He leaped up from his chair and raced to the side of my bed. His hands caressed my neck, my chest. I stared up at him, my throat too dry to talk, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t sure what I’d say anyway, how to explain the truth.

  He grabbed some water on the table beside the bed, then slipped into the bed behind me so that my head rested on his stomach. He held the water to my lips. “Drink.”

  I did. The cool liquid slid down the ragged skin of my throat where Dare had choked me until I passed out. That was one way to prevent me from leaving.

  This was Bay’s room. I could tell because he had a stack of books on his dresser, and the place was a mess—clothes and dirty dishes in random places. Bay’s mom used to yell at him all the time for not cleaning up after himself. His room was always a disaster and he was a filthy, dirt-covered novus nine times out of ten.

  He set the empty cup on the table and smoothed his hands through my hair, over my neck where the skin was raw, and down my chest. His hands were gentle until they slid down my arms and gripped my wrists tightly. A flash of panic shot through me at the familiar dread of being tied down, until Bay’s words brought me back to the present.

  “Why’d you try to leave me?” His grip was strong, but his voice was not. He’d never been good at hiding his emotions—that skill had gone to Dare. “You tried twice,” he said. “I-I don’t understand.”

  I was glad I didn’t have to look at him. The shame rushed through me, swift and hot, followed by despair, all feelings that I’d lived with for over a decade. Fatigue sunk into my bones, deep in the marrow. For so long I hadn’t been in control of my life. Lately I’d made two decisions for myself. Saving Dare and his pack, and Bay. It always came back to Bay. It always would.

  I moved my toes and focused on a pile of books in the far corner of the room as I talked. It calmed me a bit to be surrounded by Bay’s usual chaos. “The pack who took me…it wasn’t like what I implied to you.”

  Bay’s fingers flexed around my wrists. “Okay. Then what was it like?”

  Get it out, Nash. Just say it. But the uninvited memories invaded, the cold grip of their silver, the needle of liquid they stuck into my neck. The pinch of the tag they pierced in my ear. “They took me because their scouts saw I was immune. Noweres passed right by me, like I was invisible. So they took me to their compound where there were other Weres like me. They had werewolves too—they used them as bait.”

  “Fuck.”

  “I was an experiment to them, a subject, that’s all.”

  “What did they do to you?” His voice was a growl.

  “They’d give us things, inject liquid into our skin with these things they called needles. They they’d throw us to Nowere packs. Sometimes what they gave us erased our immunity. I watched a Were get turned, and the next time they threw us into the pit, he was there. As a Nowere.” I still remembered his face, contorted into something not living, eyes no longer the warm brown they’d been. His wrist had been bent at an awkward angle, his tail hanging by a strip of skin.

  Bay let go of my wrists and slid me further up his chest, so he could wrap his arms around my chest and bury his face in my neck. “I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”

  The memories were rushing back now, all the pain and terror I’d tried to forget. The only reason I wasn’t losing my mind was because of Bay’s warmth at my back, his scent surrounding me. “They tried to make us breed, but most of the females weren’t going into heat because of stress. They made us fuck anyway.”

  Bay shook. “Did you escape?”

  I shook my head. “No. My cellmate was a female named Hannah. We grew close because we only had each other. She was very small for a female.
She’d been there so long, starving, that her growth had been stunted. They knew I cared for her, so they used her against me. They warned me if I escaped they’d torture her. “

  “So how…”

  “They knew I was invisible, but…” I pointed to the long scar on my leg. “I’m immune too. That’s from a Nowere bite. They chained up a Nowere so that all it could move was its teeth and shoved me over him. He bit me. Hurt like hell, but I’m still here. Not turned.”

  Bay’s eyes were huge. “That’s fucking barbaric.”

  “No matter what they did to me, I stayed immune. I survived when many didn’t. They wanted to see how I’d survive out of their compound, so they forced me out. With nothing but the clothes I was wearing. They told me they’d be watching where I went, and had scouts outside the Silver Tip compound. If I returned to my pack or let my pack know somehow about my immunity and where I’d been—what had been done to me—they said they’d kill Hannah and then attack you all. I wandered for a long time until the Bluefoot found me, and when the alpha there figured out I had immunity, they threw me in the hole to deal with me later. They never got the chance when you attacked their compound.”

  “So you tried to leave us because you don’t want the pack who captured you to know you’re here.”

  “They’re watching.” I knew it. They had eyes everywhere; they were everywhere. Like ghosts. We didn’t know their pack name or who they were, but we called them Blanks.

  Bay’s body was trembling again, but this time it was with rage, and his arms tightened around me possessively. “I’ll talk to Dare. But no way will he stand by while Weres torture their own.”

  This was exactly what I wanted to avoid. I turned in his arms and knelt between his legs, gripping his shoulders. “No, you don’t understand. They will kill us. Their technology, Bay. I can leave now, go to them, plead for mercy—”